how to rebel in a world rebelled

You dyed your hair green when you were fifteen. Leather jackets line shelves in Topshop. Has pop eaten itself or has it just continued to be sick? Every book has been written, mashed up, and then published again. No one cares about sex before marriage any more. Marriage ain't what it used to be. No one frowns at your shredded jeans. If they do, they're old fashioned. Boring. Ignore-able. Everyone has smoked green. Everyone has a tattoo.

How do you rebel these days?

Is there anything left to subvert?

As ever, rebellion comes from disregarding the norm. If the norm has become an antiquated rebellious look then the would-be-rebel must look elsewhere. Likewise in other aspects of culture - music, literature, art - the rebellious is now the mainstream. Is anyone shocked? Perhaps the new wave of conservatism that is sure to arise to remind us that too much freedom is just too much, will be?

But why do you need to subvert anything?

Because that is how people and culture progresses.

But how do you do it now? If you're naked, I've already seen it. If I don't understand it, I've already googled it. If you dress crazy, I already bought the t-shirt. So how do you do it now? How does culture go beyond the rebellion of forty years ago? How do we advance through subversion?

I don't know.

John Waters thinks the only way is to be unique, to be truly different and unafraid. Tavi Gevinson, the teen fashion blogger who dresses herself like an old lady, agrees. Personally, I think THIS is fairly subversive. And changed my perception a bit.

I have just finished reading Green Wheat, a novella by Colette (yes, Gigi, Colette). It was first published in the early 1920's in weekly sections in a Parisian newspaper edited by her husband. Before the concluding segment ran, it was pulled, due to the outrage of it's 'frank' portrayal of teen sexuality. Of course, reading it now, the concept seems laughable. I wasn't even sure if they had really done it, because it seems so concerned with modesty.

To be frank, I am amazed that anyone is really, truly 'shocked' by anything Lady Gaga does. Is the generation a few years below me shocked? What does 'shocked' mean in this instance? Already it has over taken my perception of what that means. While differences that were once SHOCKINGLY immutable have merged, the concept of Difference, of The Other, will remain forever I think.

So Subversion remains to be Difference.

But how do you achieve that now?

Perhaps shocking people into something new or provocative is not necessary any more. Perhaps provocation does not really apply to kids who have got it all from the web. Perhaps, (returning to Tavi and Generation Y), because our resources are so vast these days, changing people's minds comes through the alteration of the individual experience, not the collective cultural shift, as culture is so fragmented and (ironically) flat.

We all know the saying that, 'A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step,' so too does culture advance first by the alteration of perception in one mind. Culture can now advance in many different directions at the same time. (Are there really sub-cultures now, or just many cultures that form the greater culture? Is this Altermodernity?)

Instead of trying to shock all of us, should artists, designers and so on instead try and coax groups of us? Because, in the vastness of the Web, of the changing world, how else do you touch the mind of the individual? In a smaller, closer, more specific way, internal rebellion occurs. And what is more mind-altering than the rebellion you wage against yourself?


I leave you with this absolutely amazing trailer for a film called Wild For Kicks. Well, aren't we all wild now?

Tavi Gevinson is my most recent icon

And an especially good one here.

I'm like, well in tune with modern culture and stuff

I've never really written an article about fashion before but here is one, in it's entirety. You can also read it in Fi Magazine or hang out over on their page here. Fi (Fashion Insider) is a relatively new London based fashion magazines which you can purchase at various fantastic London book shops. Details on the website or over at their blog.

It's not just fashion, it's recycling. All contemporary bases covered. And there's pictures.

The Spring Fling
Retro Glamour straight out of the Closet

In an attempt to hasten the advent of Spring I have recently forced myself into the epic task of going through all my old clothes and giving the most awful pieces to a charity shop. As it turns out, such wonders as a pair of red checked punk trousers, complete with a myriad of zips and Korn stickers, that a sixteen-year-old me bodged together (predominantly with safety pins), end up going in the bin – it seeming more charitable not to share them with the world.

Inevitably I begin to reminisce about what trends I used to find desirable, and now, deplorable. What’s a bit scary is that some of the undeniably grotesque 1990’s errors would now cost thirty quid or so in a vintage shop. Is no one else terrified that their nostalgically remembered childhood puffa jackets are now branded as ‘retro,’ a word which instantly makes you feel aged by twenty years? I cannot help but feel that this is all happening too soon.

Of course, as soon as I have got rid of these clothes with the triumphant exclamation of ‘SICK! Why did I buy that?’ I have the unquenchable urge to instantly go shopping for some more: clothes that will make a statement about the person I now am, propelling me towards success in 2010. However, my wallet doesn’t agree. And, given the economic and ecological climate it would seem prudent to re-use what we already have available instead of buying more shoddy, sweat-shop crafted items. This leads me to my parents’ wardrobe, where I decide to do a bit more Spring-cleaning.


My parents are great collectors, or as my father says, ‘hoarders.’ Regardless of name it does mean that they have a surprising array of antiquated clothing marvels. Some of the garments I come across are made from fabrics that don’t exist any more, whereas others look as if they come from another world altogether. There are 1960’s dresses in vibrant graphic prints, skinny Mod ties made of something called Terylene and several fur coats from the 1940’s. The beauty of these items is how well they’ve lasted and how enduringly stylish they are. Before mass production made clothing cheap and disposable, people would buy clothes thoughtfully made and designed to last. Inside jackets and hats I find ‘Made In England’ printed, a mark of fairness and authenticity that is so seldom seen in modern high street clothing. Some even state the town where they were manufactured by a local company that now no longer exists.

My finds are eclectic to say the least, but with a little bit of adapting and imagination they are suddenly very interesting, individual garments. This culmination of deliberately clashing, culturally reminiscent concepts, are rather popular in fashion at the moment. It is evident that Lady GaGa has done her bit in successfully reinventing the Dynasty look with the re-emergence of vast shoulder pads, sequinned dresses and 70’s Charlie Angel’s-style body suits. Although she would then team this with baroque teacups and Kermit the Frog dolls – a truly post-modern icon indeed. The 2010 Spring/ Summer catwalks have been favouring whites and beiges. Lacoste’s heavily inspired retro tennis collection at New York Fashion Week could be almost identically replicated from my parents’ and grand parents’ cast-offs.


On her blog ‘Style Rookie,’ the thirteen-year-old fashion darling (and my personal favourite aesthetics commentator), Tavi, has been creatively adapting her parents’ clothes since she started the now famous web page a couple of years ago. She mixes her father’s cast off socks and jumpers with charity shop finds and designer gifts to create interesting and chic pieces of reclaimed and innovative style. She is a collector of cool ideas. And if she can’t find them, she’ll make them. Perhaps, given the times in which we live, this is a more moral attitude to fashion, and, dare I say it, a more engaging and intelligent one. When we reconsider what we do, we are forced to think about it, as if it is new again, bringing back excitement to old ideas – as well as old clothes.

So, while doing your Spring-clean for new looks this season, my advice is to do it the Tavi way. Who knows, you might make-do-and-mend yourself something as surprisingly stylish as my parents’ wardrobe.


If you're a blogger and you haven't heard of Tavi or the Sartorialist then you should be ashamed of yourself.